Gold Earring, Precious Stones Among 2,000-Year-Old Treasure

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A trove of gold and silver coins and jewelry discovered near the
Qiryat Gat in Israel was likely stashed there by a wealthy woman
during the Bar Kokhba Revolt, the last Jewish-Roman war,
archaeologists announced today (June 5).

Scientists uncovered about 140 gold and silver coins, along with
gold jewelry, during an excavation that exposed rooms of a
building dating to the Roman and Byzantine period. The treasure
trove was wrapped in cloth and hidden in a pit in the building's
courtyard.

The jewelry could make even a modern gal smile; among the hoard
is a flower-shaped earring and a ring holding a precious stone
that is covered with a seal of a winged goddess. Two sticks of
silver in the trove were likely kohl sticks, which were used type
of like eyeliner in Arabia and Egypt to darken the edges of
eyelids. The coins date to the reigns of emperors Nero, Nerva and
Trajan, who ruled
the Roman Empire from about A.D. 54 to 117; the emperors'
images adorn one side of the coins.

"The composition of the numismatic artifacts and their quality
are consistent with treasure troves that were previously
attributed to the time of the Bar Kokhba Revolt," said
archaeologist Sa'ar Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Ganor added that during the uprising, between 132 and 135, the
Jews under Roman rule would re-stamp coins showing the
emperor Trajan with symbols of the revolt.

"This is probably an emergency cache that was concealed at the
time of impending danger by a wealthy woman who wrapped her
jewelry and money in a cloth and hid them deep in the ground
prior to or during the Bar Kokhba Revolt," Ganor said in a
statement. "It is now clear that the owner of the hoard never
returned to claim it."

The treasure trove is now in the laboratories of the Artifacts
Treatment Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority in
Jerusalem.

The excavation, which was undertaken on behalf of the Israel
Antiquities Authority, was funded by Y.S. Gat Ltd., the Economic
Development Corporation for the Management of the Qiryat Gat
Industrial Park.

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